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Why wont automobile manufacturers make a plug-in hybrid?

Public Comments

1. Each may have their own reasons, but I expect the following play a part: - Auto manufacturers are trying to distance their offerings from pure electric vehicles, which they see as a failure in the marketplace (although it's arguable that the manufacturers engineered that failure themselves as retribution for the electric vehicle mandates). - For a plug-in hybrid to be useful, it should run for 10-20 miles on battery alone, and that would require many more batteries than in current models, raising the price substantially. It would be worth it, though, in my view. - Auto manufacturers are stuck in an internal-combustion mindset and seem to have trouble believing that many consumers would rather plug in their cars at home rather than trekk to the gas station and pay large sums to pump smelly, dangerous, carcinogenic liquid into their gas tanks. - Some companies have invested heavily in other propulsion technologies, such as hydrogen/fuel cell and clean diesel and are unwilling to abandon those projects. - It may be just a matter of time. It takes many years to commercialize a technology that's been proved in labs or enthusiasts' workshops. Toyota appears to be furthest along this path: in Europe, the Prius is equipped with an "electric only" mode. It is possible that Toyota, right now in their development labs, has plug-in prototypes that will take several years to reach the market. - Manufacturers are concerned about warranty costs, and greater use of batteries and in conditions that have not been well characterized may shorten the life of batteries unpredictably. - Battery technology is changing rapidly, and manufacturers may wish to hold off on greater reliance on batteries until the higher-capacity batteries have proven themselves (particularly when used in a series string and gang-recharged, which tends to cause charge imbalance among the individual cells).
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